And Suddenly
by nedlovesyou
Summary: JONAS. It wasn't love at first sight. Nick/Macy.


**This is my first try at a Nick/Macy piece, and overall I'm pleased with how it came out. I'm considering writing a multi-chaptered fic about them and already have a plot in mind, but considering my past with updating I'm going to finish it before I actually start posting it.**

**This is also my first response to a prompt or challenge, the Pure Horace Mantis challenge #10.**

**Enjoy!**

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It wasn't love at first sight.

Surely he remembers the day that he met her and likewise with her, but there certainly was not a spark of any sort on that day. There were no fireworks, no racing pulses, no sweaty palms **–** at least not in the romantic way. Because when Macy Misa met Nick of Jonas, it can be assured to you that there was definitely a lot of that.

Days after their first meeting and the sweaty palms were no longer. And after days faded into weeks and weeks faded into months, the pounding heart of the (self-dubbed) number one fan of Jonas had returned to its usual rhythm when he was near. When the months turned into years, she became more than just another fan to him and he became more than Nick of Jonas to her **–** she became a friend and he became just Nick, the one constant in her life.

With Nick, she didn't need to be anyone but herself. There was no pressure to be someone she didn't want to be or do something she didn't want a part of, and the same went for Nick. Macy made him feel at peace when he was with her, like the walls he had worked so hard to build around himself could come down without question or scrutiny. A level of comfort had formed between them that they'd never been aware existed before.

The first time they suspected their friendship was blossoming into something more was in their junior year of high school. Nick had just turned seventeen while Macy's own birthday was approaching quickly. A week before, the pair was walking through the atrium **–** they made an effort to meet there everyday in between third and fourth period **–** when he asked her what she wanted for her birthday. A simple question, one would think.

"Nick, you don't need to get me anything if that's why you're asking," Macy had said to him in response to his question.

"Did you ever think that maybe I was just curious?" he challenged. "And yes I do need to get you something," he added with a grin.

"So what you get for me depends solely on my answer to this question?" she questioned.

"Yes."

"Well what if I told you I wanted world peace for my birthday?" She smiled brilliantly. "Would you try to get it for me?"

"Macy, if I knew I had the ability to singlehandedly put the world at peace then you know I'd do it in a heartbeat for you," he replied, "but maybe it would be a good idea for you to give me a second option here."

She laughed, and in return a smile settled across his grinning lips in the way only Macy could cause.

"Surprise me," she smiled, nudging his shoulder with her own as a playful goodbye before she exited the atrium and began jogging to class.

And suddenly, it was like Nick's sole mission in life was to make her seventeenth birthday the greatest day in her entire seventeen years of living. For the next week, Nick was driven by this passion to follow a strict schedule that hardly allowed for any personal time (including sleep) and spent the majority of his time planning the perfect celebration for her. It was the strangest feeling, he remembers thinking, but instead of questioning it he simply went along with it.

The funny thing is that Macy was only expecting a card signed by all three Lucas brothers and a gift card of some sort **–** maybe even a signed CD or two as a joke. It's understandable that when she showed up at the firehouse after school on her birthday she nearly passed out at the sight before her. What with the crowd of people awaiting her arrival, the streamers, the music, the food, the lights, the glitter, and every other unbelievable detail that she was trying to process. Knowing that this was all for her wasn't even the best part, because when her gaze landed on Nick in the center of the crowd, smiling a genuine (teeth-flashing) smile in her direction, the flutter in her heart made her feel like one of those princesses she used to dream about becoming when she was little. And only for a moment she caught herself thinking that maybe she'd found a prince charming; her own, not-so-conventional prince.

For Nick, it was the fact that when she looked back at him through the crowd everything in his peripheral vision began blurring. Dancing figures of the invited guests began twirling away in slow motion, ever so slowly fading to black until the only thing he could see was her smile. And when she ran up to hug him, the warmth of her body against his suddenly felt like it never had before.

From that moment on, they both knew that something between them had changed. Exactly what it was hadn't yet been uncovered, but it was definitely different.

In late November, he invited her and her family to the firehouse for Thanksgiving. Stella and her family would be attending, of course, but Macy still felt special **– **like she belonged there too. She remembers that it was raining out that day, and how she was freaking out on the drive over about the possibility of her hair frizzing while she walked the ten feet from her car to the door. She remembers Nick greeting her at the door, giving her a quick hug and commenting on how her hair smelled particularly strawberry scented that day. And suddenly, she wasn't too preoccupied with her hair.

After dinner, everyone naturally spread off into their own groups: the parents in the kitchen, Kevin and Frankie choosing to stay at the dining room table to continue eating, Joe and Stella opting to take a walk, and Nick leading Macy outside to sit on the rocking bench on the front porch. He sat down first, lifting his arm and resting it on the top edge of the bench. Macy sat close to him, leaning her head back on his arm as a comfortable silence lingered between them.

Crickets could be heard from the front yard, fireflies illuminating the night sky before them like tiny shooting stars. It was almost magical, like in a classic Disney fairytale, and they found themselves in a state of awe. Nick's hand unconsciously slipped down to wrap around her shoulder in the midst of their stargazing and Macy let out a peaceful sigh. Nick continued to watch the sight, but all the while kept his focus on Macy in the corner of his eye.

"Hey, Mace?" he addressed her softly.

"Yeah?"

"Did I ever tell you that you're my best friend?"

"No," she replied honestly, "have I ever told you that you're mine?"

"No," he laughed, "but it's nice to know."

"Likewise," she smiled, closing her eyes and leaning her head between his neck. She pretended not to noticed how perfectly it fit, as did Nick.

But they could only pretend for so long.

It was that night that Nick had the dream that changed everything between them. Macy and her folks left at about eleven, after she'd tiredly given him a hug and he returned a sluggish wave. Two minutes later and he'd brushed his teeth, changed, and collapsed onto his bed, only a moment or two of coherent thoughts dallying until he'd fallen completely asleep. Most nights of his were uneventfully dreamless, which is one of the reasons the dream he had that night came as such a surprise to him, though certainly not the biggest.

A little boy was running through a yard of some sort, chasing a butterfly as the image of a small house and white picket fence came into view around him. The grass was a perfect green, in the way of perfection that can only be achieved in a dream. There was a shout from inside the house that sounded like a middle-aged woman, and the boy gave up on chasing the monarch that continued to glide through the air even after the boy had gone inside.

The view switched from the front of the house to the interior, a cozy living room taking shape before Nick's sleeping eyes and a kitchen and dining room forming on opposite sides. A little girl was sitting in a wooden rocking chair on the lap of an older man, who's face was hidden by a Dr. Suess book he was reading to her. She laughed lightly at everything the man read, and it was then that Nick noticed she had the some of the same features as Macy. Their mouths were practically identical and their noses had the same round shape. He looked into the little girls eyes and began subconsciously turning in his sleep as he recognized them to be eerily similar of his own.

Just then, the little boy came running in from the kitchen and suddenly a dreaming Nick recognized his curly locks. He also possessed a pair of round brown eyes, strikingly familiar to those of Macy. The boy jumped on the man's other knee and out reflex the man slumped over, the book falling from its previous position and providing the perfect angle to reveal the man's face.

Nick stopped tossing as realization began to hit.

The man looked _exactly_ like him, except for the obvious signs of age. His shoulders were broader, of course. The bags underneath his eyes were a bit more defined. A few wrinkles had formed on the sides his eyes and there were more lines on his forehead, but the resemblance was still striking.

The woman from before began speaking again and her voice grew louder and louder, as if it was coming closer and closer. The conscious part of Nick knew what was about to happen and begged the unconscious part of himself to wake up, but unfortunately for him his dreaming mind defied him.

His first thought when she came into view was that age had done nothing to negatively affect her appearance, and that she looked even more beautiful in her older age. The color of her hair had faded a bit, yes. And true, her hips were not as slim as they once were. But her smile - her smile had a certain glow about it that resembled a blissful happiness. Her eyes were full of an unbreakable life. Macy had also acquired an angelic grace, he noticed, gliding across the hardwood floor to join her family.

To join her husband.

To join her husband, Nick Lucas.

That's when his eyes darted open and he sat up with a start. Tiny beads of sweat were beginning to trickle down his forehead and he wiped them away feverishly, feeling how warm his face was in the process. He let out a breath that, unbeknownst to him, he'd been holding since he'd awaken. He laid his head back down on his pillow, trying to think **–** trying to process. His brain just couldn't sputter out any coherent thought, though, and he just lay still, breathing steadily.

He expected to feel relief that the dream was over; the dream where he was living a stereotypical suburban life with his best friend as a wife and two beautiful children, a white picket fence being the bow atop it all. He expected to forget about it, blow it off as though it were nothing but his mind playing games with him. He expected to wake up in the morning and not even remember it. But when he closed his eyes to return to sleep, he found himself hoping to fall back into the dream; the dream where he was living a stereotypical suburban life with his best friend as a wife and two beautiful children, a white picket fence being the bow atop it all.

A week went by and they hadn't spoken to each other once. It was rather easy for Nick to avoid her, considering there was no school for a week. But when he woke up on Monday morning, a smile still on his face from his (now recurring) dream of Macy, he realized then that she was unavoidable. Not simply for the fact that they'd be forced tp interact on the walk to school, and in class, and at lunch, and on their walk through the atrium, but for the fact that he didn't want to avoid her. He needed her.

He decided to tell her all of these new found realizations while they were in the atrium that day. Unlike all of the other days they'd been there, he asked her to sit down next to him on the bench rather than just walk through it and be gone. She said that there was no time, but he said to her a simple, "Please, Mace," and she sat down.

They talked for a while about what they'd done on their vacations, Macy telling Nick about her trip to her grandparents' while Nick told Macy about the Lucas family's ongoing shenanigans. When she asked why he hadn't answered her calls or stopped by her house all week, he knew he needed to tell her then.

"The night after Thanksgiving, I had this dream," he began. Macy sat up and turned to face him more, her eyebrows raising with anticipation. He sheepishly looked down and smiled before returning his gaze to her and continuing. "You were there. It was this big suburban house, you know with the white picket fence and mowed green grass - the whole deal. There was a kid chasing a butterfly who had hair and eyes like mine, and inside there was a girl with a mouth a nose**–**" he found himself struggling at this point and paused, taking a shaky breath, "**–**well, like yours. The two kids were sitting on a man's lap and he was reading them a book, and when the book moved I realized that the man was me. Not me now, but like a thirty-five year old me. And then you walked in**–**"

"Not me now though," Macy paused, "but like a thirty-five year old me right?" she asked with a light smile, calming his sudden nerves.

"Yeah," he laughed and let out a breath. "Then I woke up, and I thought that I'd just forget about it like it was nothing. But," he stopped and looked down at his lap, not knowing how to put into words how he felt and suddenly growing nervous again.

"But what?" Macy asked him softly, and she sounded **–** _vulnerable._ She sounded like he did.

He looked up at her and their eyes locked, mirroring the same expression of fear and of hopefulness.

"But I missed it," he confessed, "and I wanted to go back to it. And all I wanted to do was see you, but I**–**"

"Nick," she placed a warm hand over his. "I understand what you're trying to say, but can I ask you something first?"

"Anything."

"Are you sure you didn't just fall in love with the dream?" she asked, the vulnerability growing steadily. "Or do you think that you fell in love with me?" And the hopefulness in her eyes grew faster than the fear.

"I think**–**" he stopped, and Macy held her breath, "I think I've been in love with you for a long time and it was the dream that made me realize it."

And when Macy's shoulders fell as she let out her breath, she smiled at him with all she had in her. The warning bell for class rang outside the atrium doors and students began running frantically down the halls in a rushed attempt to get to class on time, but it was as if those people were in a completely different world from Nick and Macy. Their bodies blurred, fading to black until all the two could see was each other.

It wasn't love at first sight, but this sight was definitely love.

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**I love cheesy one-line endings, don't you? Review please! It would mean a lot to me. :)**


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